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This video – recently distributed by the Mexico promotional agency “Mexico IT” – provides a pretty detailed picture on why Mexico has gone from the “best kept secret” in global outsourcing (a Gartner quote) to one of the world’s leading BPO destinations. A mild warning: The content is definitely promotional in nature, but there are plenty of infobits to make watching worthwhile:

Madrid-based Emergia has recently opened a contact center site outside of Medellin, Colombia — further evidence of Colombia’s growing strength as an attractive BPO destination. “Colombia is a country with many emerging business opportunities, so it aligns perfectly with our goals of expanding globally. We intend to coordinate a large number of projects from Manizales, to meet our European and American customers from a single center, “said Alejandro Zurbano, CEO Emergia. For the English version of the press announcement click here.

Emergia has a dozen contact centers globally and, in addition to the new Colombia site, also operates a center in Managua.

“Though decision making is not accelerating, our clients are stable now in terms of doing business,” said V N Tyagarajan, COO, Genpact. “We see growth coming from three areas – verticals, horizontals and geographies. We are constantly evaluating these three areas for both organic and inorganic growth.”

Genpact, which is an active player in the nearshore region, is one of several large BPO providers who have said that the worst of the economic pain may have passed. It’s is not surprising therefore that there continues to be interest in diversifying the global footprint of the largest providers – and thus we continue to expect more deals especially in Latin America, either through outright acquisition, or more increasingly a mix of shared services/ captive operations finding some level of operating integration. As for Genpact, about 83 per cent of the company’s revenues come from business process services, while revenues from IT services were about 17 per cent of total revenues for the first quarter of 2009.

Take time to check out the serene and spectacular Pico Bonito National Park where there are some beautiful natural swimming pools

Living a Balanced Life: Make The Most of Your Business Trip to Honduras

Central American countries continue to gain visibility in the minds of North American travelers – and for good reason – great cultures, great history and a sense of hospitality and friendliness throughout the region. If you’re headed to Honduras to check out newly emerging global services industries there – start by landing in San Pedro Sula – and we recommend you follow the advice of this seasoned traveler, who tailors her message specifically to single women travelers.

The pursuit of human capital is driving a dramatic shift in the global outsourcing industry. According to report released today from AT Kearney, the top outsourcing destinations (India, China and Malaysia) are losing ground as the flow of deals spreads more widely across the globe.

As we continue to chronicle on this website, one of the key beneficiaries of this trend are Latin American and Caribbean nations who have made the necessary investments in telecom infrastructure, jobs and educational training and tax incentives to attract services contracts. As advocates of nearshore outsourcing, we were especially pleased to see that AT Kearney singled out several nearshore nations as being outstanding performers in global services:

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean continue to capitalize on their proximity to the United States as nearshore destinations. Chile placed highest among countries from the region, ranking 8th on the strength of its political stability and favorable business environment. Other strong performers in the region include Mexico (11th), Brazil (12th), Costa Rica (23rd) rising from 34th place and Jamaica, which rose 11 places to rank 24rd.

The report goes on to say that the global economic slowdown will probably not translate to job losses in offshore operations. Instead, companies will continue to try to maintain service levels and take advantage of highly efficient operations. For a look at the press release go here.

VistaPrint’s Roger Williams recently spoke with Caribbean CRM Central to talk about the company’s captive design, sales and services centers in Bermuda and Jamaica. Roger is the General Manager of VistaPrint Jamaica Limited. About a quarter of the company’s 1,600 global workforce is based in the Caribbean. The talent pool in Jamaica has become one of the core attractions for VistaPrint.

Roger shares some insightful comments about the reason for VistaPrint’s commitment to developing a nearshore operations center. Follow this link to see the whole interview…Continue reading →